Christie Burns Bridge With N.J. Senators

Bridge Blame Game: There won’t be any federal money yet to replace the aging Portal Bridge over New Jersey’s Hackensack River.

Updated, 2:30 Friday: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he won’t criticize the state’s Democratic U.S. senators for a lack of federal funding for a vital bridge repair. Nope, that just wouldn’t be fair.

“I feel badly about it,” the Republican governor said Thursday, reflecting on the lack of federal funding to replace the aging Portal Bridge, “because I wish they would have been more powerful and more successful in being able to get more resources for New Jersey, but obviously they failed in that regard.”

Christie said he was sure New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez did the “best they could” to secure federal money to pay for the train passage over the Hackensack River, which needs a $750 million replacement.

The state will benefit from a $2 billion federal injection announced earlier this week into high-speed rail projects, which includes nearly $800 million along in the corridor connecting Boston and Washington through New York.